Windows 8 was released on 2012-10-26. That is, 16 days ago. Why am I writing
about it now? Easy: because I did not even bother doing a review. This is
just a bit of quick commentary.

I used Windows 8 for a bit since the RTM, thanks to the 90-day evaluation.
And? Not too much has changed since Release Preview. It lost even more Aero.
Other little changes appeared. That’s it.

I tested the new system on some humans. They didn’t quite like and understand
the new stuff. So, not good.

And also, there are TV ads and other marketing materials. Can you please guess
what is used to control the system in them? That’s right: touch. They also
recommend new PCs. Most of them are the ones I like to call “hipster”:
ultrabooks, all-in-ones, tablets, convertibles. Oh well. Because everybody
wants to buy a brand new PC now. Tell you what: most people don’t. Unlike eg.
smartphones, people generally buy new PCs when their old ones are (a) broken;
(b) painfully slow; (c) old as hell. So we have that.

That $40 upgrades are a way to get more people to use Windows 8. They did it,
because they know that they might not get a lot of upgrades if it was more
expensive. Another possible explanation is the fact that it may not be liked
by people. The cheaper the product, the more likely are people to buy it
impulsively.

That concludes my thoughts for now. I will publish more of them when sales
reports will be published.

Click on the section title. Go ahead. I suggest a {Ctrl,Cmd}-click. It goes
over to Microsoft.com. Now, why you need to go to Microsoft.com to learn this?
Why isn’t this shown at the first login to Windows? Or at least a “Hello, you
may want to learn what we will fuck you with for the next three or so years
unless you decide to downgrade, but we all know that you won’t, right?
Right? Learn more pop-up. So, Overview and Search, share, &
more teach you the basics of Metro. All fine. Now, let’s learn what changed.
I replaced marketing bullshit with the word blah. Everything that I said is
in italics.

Oh, hi. It’s you. So, how are you holding up, shutdown magic? Let’s
read about you.blah blah no need to shut down blah sleep blah
little power, faster startup, back to where you left off*—what? So you
want people to put Windows to sleep now? This capability is in Windows
since ages. Congrats, Microsoft, on reminding yourself of its existence
and thus getting to tell people to do it the proper way! Unless you use a
desktop PC, where it is almost always better to do a full halt.* blah
default mode blah close your lid or hit the power button blahHold on.
You want me to hit the power button? I enabled this fancy
start-up-at-the-moment-in-which-you-get-power feature for <strong>a
reason.</strong> Getting to the power button of my tower is not that easy.
I don’t want to duck so low. * *blah change default mode to sleep why
isn’t the it default?blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah airplane
blah not using blah turn off blah*close desktop apps blah save work
*blah settings charm blah power blah shut down blah. </dl>

Apps blah blah from the Windows Store don’t slow down your PC, so you
don’t need to close them blah blah close at random blah close desktop
apps before shutodwn blah drag from the top of the screen to the bottom
BTW: why, exactly, this way? blahblah left-side menu blah drag to
bottom with touch, right-click and Close with a mouse blah

So we have that. Up next, Customize Start. Standard. How to use apps, or:
app commands (right-click/{↓,↑}swipe). Those things are important, but are
also easily discoverable by mistake. Switch between apps? Standard
swipe-from-left/top-left corner thing, not so easy to find. Also, app
snapping.